We're Back Exhibiting At Professional Beauty London 17th - 18th October!

Big Events Are Back!

Hi everyone, how are we all? Who’s looking forward to Professional Beauty London next month? We can’t believe it’s been 2 years since we exhibited at the Excel; it seems like 2 minutes ago but so much has happened since then, with the unprecedented pandemic and our industry being forced to close, it has been a difficult 18 months for everyone. But it’s finally starting to look like there is light at the end of the tunnel and things are looking positive! Your businesses have been back open almost 6 months now and it’s been a really successful 6 months from what we have gathered from our clients. But not only has it been busy for you all (which we are so happy about) it’s also been a really great few months for us in terms of development, which we’ll be showcasing a few things that we have been working on whilst were at the show too! But more than anything, we’re just excited to get back to exhibiting and seeing you all in person again. Plus, we’re just as much looking forward to seeing all the other brand showcases and doing a bit of shopping ourselves too!

So, what’s new from us?

Here are the features that we have been developing and what are we looking forward to introduce to you this October:


Editable Siteview

At the previous Salon International and Professional Beauty London shows, we had lots of hair and beauty businesses asking us if we have the ability to edit appointments within our Siteview app. Then throughout the lockdown, it became more and more apparent that there was the need for this feature, due the fast change in working arrangements and the need for flexibility. Throughout the lockdowns, we used the time that our industry was closed to really develop this feature and we are pleased to say we have now launched this within the app! This is available both as a feature within the native app on IOS and Android devices but can also be used in the web browser on any PC/iPad that has internet access. Appointments can now be added, edited, updated and deleted within the app, in which this is all permission based within the software itself, meaning if there are certain elements within the app that you don’t want some employees having access to (for example reports), these can be restricted for certain logins. This is now available to anyone on our Enterprise software package.


Improved Salon Payments

Over the past few years, as we have enhanced our software package, we have altered the way in which we have introduced payments, using PayPal previously to take deposits. However, we have now developed an easier payments solution using stripe payments, which will allow salons to be able to not only take deposits for their bookings, it will allow upfront payments for treatments and also allow subscription services too. So, for anyone that has recently requested tanning subscriptions, these will be available on our Enterprise package very shortly!


Deduction of Services for No-Show Appointments

We know how frustrating no shows are and especially since the lockdown, when business was limited for some time, it is even more frustrating and so, we have implemented some extra features to try and stop no shows even further. One of our main new benefits being that we have altered the way in which no-shows are dealt with. Where currently, our no shows would send a ‘no-show’ SMS message to notify the client of their missed appointment, and would also flag on the system. Improving this, we have now also implemented the ability for services to be automatically deducted from the clients account if they don’t show up to their appointment. So, for example, for a tanning booking of say 9 minutes, if the client didn’t show up the appointment and this was marked as a ‘no-show’ by the salon, the 9 minutes would then be deducted from the clients tanning course. This is also where our online payments system comes in, as if a deposit is paid for by the client and then they don’t show up to the appointment, the salon will keep the deposit for the no-show appointment. Our aim with this is to therefore deter clients from not showing up to appointments, to ensure that they get in touch with you beforehand if they need to cancel or alter their booking. Making sure you can then fill those gaps accordingly as early as possible!


Anything different?

So, what is going to be different this time at the show? Since the pandemic, there has been a few alterations to the show procedures and how we will be operating on our stand. But don’t worry, everything that we have altered is all for extra safety and precautions.

In terms of our stand and the general show operations, this will all be the same but there will be a couple of changes implemented by the show organisers, in terms of practices within the excel; such as mandatory mask-wearing in the common areas and social distancing where possible.

We will also be practising social distancing and ensuring that there are extra sanitization stands, also sanitising all shared equipment and computer equipment (keyboards and mice) on stand. Our staff will all have visors and we will be making sure we carry out regular recorded cleans on our stand too for the duration of the event.

We will also be displaying our information packs on a help your self-service, to further minimise the cross-contamination risk and will try to obtain your details in a covid-friendly way.

But if you have registered for your free ticket we will be, as usual, holding in-person demonstrations on stand, to offer marketing and salon management advice all-day across the 2-day weekend. We’re just really looking forward to seeing some of you in person again and being able to get back to exhibiting and networking with everyone! It’s been 2 years too long and we just really want to get back to helping you all to manage your salon, boost profits and grow your salons.

At the show, this is also an opportunity for all of our clients to visit us and ask us any requests that you may have. Look out also over the next coming weeks, as we will be showcasing a Q and A over on our Instagram, as we want to re-communicate and ensure that any needs your salon have, we can try and help implement these for you!

Lets get back to business! We can’t wait to see you there,

Salon Tracker x

Health and Safety within your salon and how Salon Tracker can assist you with keeping within the guidelines

Health and Safety guidelines for salons can seem complex at first glance and there is a lot you must consider as the owner of the salon, to maintain a safe working environment. It is essential that staff and customers are safe from harm within the salon if the standards are not met to prevent them from harm the repercussions can be astronomical. Completing continuous risk assessments and establishing a salon health and safety policy will ensure that your staff members are able to carry out their jobs without risk to themselves and clients.

Risk Assessment

It is essential that your salon has a risk assessment in place that is continuously monitored and updated when potential new risks occur. Within a risk assessment you must identify the variety of risks that occur within the workplace and put procedures such as management measures to minimize or eliminate the hazard. If any accidents were to take place due to the hazard not being eliminated you must record the incident and carry out an investigation in line with Health and Safety Executive reporting standards. When procedures and policies are put in place to prevent hazards, they must be documented so that you are able to refer back to them in any necessary given moment.

Age Limitations

Under The Sunbeds Regulations Act 2010 it is an illegal offense for people under the age of 18 to use sunbeds in any facility, meaning that if the client appears to be under the age of 21 or 25, they will be asked to verify that they are 18 or over by showing valid proof of age. The regulations also state that the prescribed health information is provided on an A4 and A3 piece of paper so that clients are reminded each time they enter the salon, this is the only information that should be displayed information such as health effects of sunbeds will not be displayed.

Beauty therapists must protect and promote the welfare of under 16-year-olds therefore it is not recommended to carry out treatments on individuals within this age group. However, you are able to carry out beauty treatments on 16-year-olds but to do so you must oblige by the manufacturer’s instructions and guidelines.

Keeping your Salon and Staff Members Safe

As a salon owner you have a duty of care to your employees and clients this means that you must consider things such as: personal protective equipment, the correct facilities and equipment for staff to be able to carry out services safely and controlling substances that can be classed as hazardous to health regulations. In order to maintain high standards of care within the work environment it is important to appoint a first aider they will also be in charge of the first aid arrangements within the salon. The welfare of the employees and clients is a high priority within the salon, this means that you must be able to provide them with facilities and other measures to ensure the individuals wellbeing needs are met. The need for insurance within a salon environment is essential as it plays a vital part in protecting you when it comes to legal claims and financial losses that the salon may face.

Health and Safety Policy

If your salon has five or more employees then it is necessary that your salon has a health and safety policy in place, however it is good practice for your salon to have a policy in place with less than five employees. The law states that you must provide training for staff members so that they are able to enforce health and safety legislations as well as the policy you created for your salon.

Using Salon Tracker to Stay Within Health and Safety Guidelines

How can Salon Tracker assist you with maintaining the health and safety standards within your salon? Within the system you are able to store information such as client allergies on their client card you can add this information in as an alert therefore it will appear in a red box when the client’s card is opened, the allergy information can be gathered through consultations and skin tests. Salon Tracker also provides hardware that is able to assist you with health and safety for example; the signature pad allows you to store the customers signature on your agreement within their client card along with a date and time of when it was signed. Another example of how Salon Trackers hardware is able to aid you in staying within the guidelines is through the fingerprint reader in which you are able to identify which client is in the salon through their unique finger print this eliminates the risk of under age individuals using other clients name to access the services in the salon which they are not legally permitted to have.

There are tanning regulations implemented into the system so that you are able to prevent clients from returning to the salon more than once a day you can also prevent underage clients from using the sunbeds. The system also connects with Sigma and T-Max which means that the beds can be controlled from Salon Tracker within this you are also able to control the dress down and cool down periods for the beds which can help to prevent the beds from over heating in your busier time periods.

If you wish to book in for your free demonstration and two-week trial don't hesitate to contact us on 0113 350 8230 or alternatively email us at info@salontracker.co.uk.

Salon Tracker Team. X

Feature of the Month- New Tanning Features

Feature of the month is back! To celebrate this month, we’re doing a three in one of new tanning rules that we have added into the software over the past couple of weeks all in one place!

Overbook

One new feature which is in the final stages of completion is our new overbook feature. This feature is more for the tanning salons who take prebooking’s for their beds.  This feature allows you to book customers onto a bed, even if they don’t have the minutes pre purchased on their account. For example, if one of your customers wanted to get booked in for a sunbed in a few days’ time for 15 minutes, but only had 6 minutes remaining on their course card, you would be able to book them a slot for 15 minutes, with the 9 extra minutes being classed as an over booking. If you do this, you won’t be able to confirm the booking until those extra 9 minutes have been purchased. This means that you can effectively book people in for more minutes that they have remaining but means that you won’t be able to put them onto the bed unless they have paid, meaning you’re less likely to give away any free

minutes by accident.

Course Rules

Another new feature that we have recently added to the system is course and single minutes rules. The way this works is that when you add a new booking or single minute service, you can add some course rules onto it. For example, with your single minute services, you can add the rule that it’s got to all be used in one session. This means that people can’t buy 15 single minutes and use 9 minutes one day and then 6 the next. This feature can also be used for courses. For example, if you have a course where a customer can go on 20 sessions for a set price, you can set the number of sessions available for that course to be 20. As well as the number of sessions per tanning service, you can also set it so there are only set numbers available to take off. For example, with the 15-minute single session there would only be a -15 option or if you had a course which allowed 10 minutes per day for a set amount of time, the only option available would be -10. You can set these numbers and the number of sessions as to whatever works best for you.

Online Security

We have also improved security for your salon when it comes to online bookings. Now all booking rules that are set on Salon Tracker will pull through to the online account. This means that whilst customers were never able to go on the bed more than once a day, this will also stop customers booking more than once a day meaning there will be more space on your calendar. Any other booking rules will be pulled through too, for example if you want fairer skin types to only be able to book once every 48 hours of if you only want your customers to only be able to book a set number of sunbeds per year. This again is totally customisable to your salon and just means you have even more control of what goes on in your salon at all times.

 

If you would like anymore information on any of these features or would like any help getting them set up, please don’t hesitate to give us a call.  Also, if you would like to see these features in action come visit us at Professional Beauty London on the 17^th and 18^th of October and we will be able to give you a demonstration of how they work!

 

Salon Tracker x 

Why hiring apprentices can benefit your Salon!

Your salons growth is extremely dependant on the people you hire, without good
employees it would be a struggle to run your salon successfully, if at all. Whilst it is important to hire staff that are experienced, knowledgeable and qualified it also pays off to hire up and coming apprentices with little knowledge and experience. These people will be itching to learn and will most likely carry your Salon into upcoming trends and styles. 

So, what does hiring an apprentice really involve?

An apprentice can be anyone over the age of 16, and their apprenticeship programme can last anything from 12-18 months. This means that whilst learning the inns and outs of the job role, they are also qualifying in knowledgeable courses that will help guide them throughout, possibly bringing even more knowledge back to the salon. 

Worried that hiring an apprentice isn't cost effective? Wrong! The government could potentially be funding 100% of the cost to train an apprentice depending on their age. You can find out all the funding information on the official government website. Please note that you can hire an apprentice to cover any job role within the Salon, this could even be down to a receptionist all the way up to a aesthetician, the choice is yours! 

Benefits of hiring an apprentice

Whilst hiring an apprentice will help them grow their skills and knowledge, it can also help to create an endearing workplace environment for all employees and clients. Experienced employees can help to influence the way your apprentices behave and also develop their learning within the Salon. 

If you are concerned about hiring apprentices with little experience because they will take longer to learn the ropes of the job... think of it this way instead: hiring an apprentice means you have a fresh mind to work with in terms of their knowledge of the job role and they will learn everything from your nurturing  rather than coming in with old and possibly outdated knowledge. 

A range of ages throughout the Salon all with different skills, abilities and personalities can actually be extremely beneficial to your Salon. Young apprentices are often down with the trends which can really bring your social media accounts to life. Tik Tok is the most popular app in the world right now and having your Salon on tiktok will give you chance to get your Salon out there and potentially build your client base. 

Our Apprentice Experience

Here at Salon Tracker, we have 3 degree apprentices who know first hand how beneficial completing an apprenticeship can be. Christie and Naomi joined the business straight after completing college in 2017. Over the course of their apprenticeship, both Christie and Naomi have come a long way in terms of confidence, knowledge and experience. Not only have they improved individually, but they have also been able to bring what they have learnt to the business and help to bring in loads of new, modern ideas. After having such a positive experience with our own apprentices, we would always be open to hiring more as we believe they have been a great asset to the company!

Don't forget we're exhibiting at Professional Beauty London on the 17th-18th of October on Stand M39. Feel free to come down and meet the team for a free demo of the software.

Salon Tracker x

How to Retain Clients

 

Customer retention, or customer loyalty, is an important part of running a salon especially due to the current climate due to COVID-19 and salons having been closed for so long. This week we decided to put together a blog to share our best tips and tricks to keep clients coming into your salon.

Social Media

One of the best, and easiest, ways to keep your clients coming back it to utilise social media. Regular posting of your work and other post relating to your salon means that your customers will keep seeing your posts and this will remind them to keep getting booked in with you. Social media is also a great way to connect and communicate with your clients too. Clients are more likely to return to a salon where they feel comfortable and communicating and interacting with them over social media is a great way to do so.  If you would like some ideas on how to manage and run a social media account effectively for your salon go to www.salontracker.co.uk.news and see the many blogs we’ve written about this. P.s drop us a follow @salontrackersoftware

SMS Marketing

Another way you can keep your customers coming back to your salon is by sending them text message marketing campaigns. The great thing about this is it could be anything you want.  Salon Trackers ‘Marketing Suite’ gives you the option to filter out specific groups of customers to send messages to directly from your system. For example, you could filter out all your best spending customers for that month and send them a text to try and encourage them to get re booked into your salon. Here is an example of an SMS that you could send:

Hi ‘FORENAME’

Thank you for being one of our most loyal customers! As a thank you here’s your voucher for 10% off your next visit!

See you Soon!

YOURSALONNAME YOURSALONNUMBER T’s&C’s Apply

Loyalty Rewards

One thing that customers will always love is to be rewarded for their loyalty. One way you could do this is set up a loyalty scheme or loyalty groups. For example, one way that you could work this is have different packages all depending on how many appointments that they have had with you. You could have gold, silver and bronze packages all which have different levels of rewards for your most loyal customers including discounts off treatments, retail products or even exclusive access to new treatments before your other clients. Having a reward scheme like this will encourage all your customers to stay loyal to your salon and keep coming in as much as possible. Salon Tracker gives you the option to manage this with our groups feature and this means you can just put these customers into the correct rewards group and Salon Tracker will manage this for you!

If you would like any more information on any of these features or would like us to help you get them set up, please give us a call on 0113 350 8230 or drop us an email on info@salontracker.co.uk for any help or training!

Salon Tracker x

How to establish your new and upcoming salon

When establishing a new business within the salon industry there are a few things that you must take into consideration.

Business plans are essential when starting a new salon, you must be prepared and organised for any situation that may come your way when preparing for the launch of the salon. Things such as a grand opening should be organised to spread the word of your upcoming salon within the community, within this party you can display products that you offer as well as offers.

It is important to plan out what services will be provided within the salon, to do this you must take into consideration what treatments are most desirable within your target market/audience. As the owner of the business products and services you supply to your clients should be under constant review as trends are forever changing therefore people’s preferences of treatments will vary dependent on the season and the trends throughout the year.

One major aspect in promoting your newly established salon is your social media presence. It is important to have a business account on a variety of different social media platforms so that you are able to reach out to a range of different clients. To be able to retain and attract new clients you must ensure that you are constantly posting on each of your social media accounts, posting at least twice a day as a minimum on each account at the correct times during the day. For example, most individuals check their social media pages during their lunch break at work and on a night after work therefore it would be logical to post at these times of a day as people are more active on their social media accounts. The times may change dependent on your client basis taking into consideration factors such as if the majority of your salon clients are full time stay at home parents. The content you post is of high importance especially when you’re a new salon, content such as before and after images are a great way to promote the upcoming salon as clients love to see the process you make. It allows them to build a confidence bond between the client and your staff member as they have been made aware that the staff are very much capable.

For your salon to be able to develop a solid client base it is important that the customer experience starting from when the client enters the salon, walking into reception to when they pay for the service and leave must be impeccable. This means that the environment must exceed customer expectations in terms of cleanliness and decorativeness as clients are more likely to recommend your salon to friends when they have been built a personal relationship with the staff members within your salon from them providing an excellent service (including aftercare) and interacting with the client. Word of mouth is essential and helps to spread awareness of your salon and its services.

There are many ways in which you as a salon owner are able to maintain the high quality of care you are providing to your clients whilst promoting the business to the best of your abilities. Asking clients for reviews including how in their opinion their experience at the salon could be improved this allows you to constantly enhance the quality of your services and customer experience. Doing this will provide your salon with a higher chance of repeat clients when you add value to their service and experience. After each appointment it is essential for you and your staff members to always offer to schedule the clients next appointment to prompt them into returning. 

When starting a new salon owners like to offer discounts to entice customers to the salon. There are variation of different discount methods that you can use to entice clients to book at your salon such as referral discounts and start up offers.

These are just a few tips on how to establish your new salon within your community, follow our blog updates every week to learn the tools you are able to use to promote your business and maintain a strong client basis.

Salon Tracker. X

Unknown Beauty Hacks you just need to know!

We've had 16 months since the start of the pandemic to now and i'm sure you have found out lots of little beauty hacks to get you through all 3 lockdowns. I've pulled out some of the best ones that have been tried and tested by us girls at Salon Tracker and we think they're too good to not share!

Castor Oil.

If you haven't already purchased a bottle of castor oil then you need to get one immediately! Castor oil is rich n fatty acids, Vitamin E and Proteins which is the best recipe for rapid hair growth. This can be applied to your scalp over night in a shower cap to avoid it going all over your pillow then washed out the next day for hair growth. Or it can be applied to lashes and eyebrows for growth too. Tried and tested by myself, after having lash extensions applied for months I didn't have many lashes left and what I did have left were short and brittle. After 2-3 months using castor oil on my lashes every night my lashes were long and thick again and received many compliments about them!

To get your hands on your own bottle, click the link below!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08BYTT88F/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Green Tea Bath

Green Tea is known for the many benefits it has when you drink it... but how many of you knew that a soak in a green tea bath is also really good for you! Green Tea baths can help reduce muscle pain and reduce redness of the skin. Known for the great antioxidants it contains it has also been said to have anti-aging effects as it helps your skin to recover from environmental elements. You can simply use green tea tea bags in your bath or you could try purchasing a green tea infused bath salt and see which you prefer!

Cold Water Face Wash

Simple yet effective - a cold water face wash! It seems to be our instinct to wash our faces with warm water rather than cold, probably because it is more comfortable like this! But unfortunately warm water on our face opens up our pores and can increase the likelihood of bacteria getting in them and causing breakouts. Cold water keeps your pores closed whilst allowing your face to be cleaned of bacteria with a cleanser the proper way, therefore reducing the amount of breakouts! A cold water face wash can also be quite refreshing, especially in summer!

Powder Lashes

Wanting a fuller lash but not wanting to splash out on lots of different mascaras? Try applying a coat of mascara then dusting your lashes with some translucent powder whilst the coat is still wet. Then apply another coat of mascara and notice a huge difference! You can also use baby powder as an alternative to the translucent powder, just make sure you don't get it in your eye!

The never ending perks of vaseline

Vaseline is an essential when it come to keeping your lips moisturised but it has many other great uses too. It is a great reliever of dry skin and has healing properties on things such as scratches and cuts. Vaseline can also come in handy if you have forgotten your makeup remover, simply apply a little bit onto your eyelids and wipe off with a cotton pad to remove any mascara or eyeshadow! Vaseline can also work well as a more natural form of highlight to top off your sleek makeup look - forget expensive highlighters and make room for Vaseline!

Hair Spray for the win

All women all over the world know how frustrating baby hairs can be when we are styling our hair, even more annoying when you pin them out of the way with a bobby pin and less than an hour later its already slid out! One hack I have come to know is spraying your bobby pins with hair spray before you put them in your hair. This gives them a bit more texture and grip and allows them to stay in your hair all day! 

Rice isn't just good for eating!

Using Rice Water on your hair is a popular hair growth hack all over the world but its not something that everyone knows about... soaking hair in rice water is a cheap yet effective method of turning your hair from dull, dark and dead into long luscious locks. Simply follow the below instructions to make the rice water:

- Take 1/2 cup uncooked rice

- Rinse thoroughly

- Place rice in a bowl with 2-3 cups of water and leave to soak for 30 mins

- Strain the rice into a clean bowl and retain for your next hair wash!

When it comes to next washing your hair simply shampoo and rinse your hair, poor rice water onto the hair and massage into hair and scalp. Leave on for 20-30 mins then rinse thoroughly with warm water! Do this 1-2 times per week and watch the results shine!

These are our top 7 unknown beauty hacks, why not let us know how you find them or even better, tell us a new unknown beauty hack?

Salon Tracker x